Sunnytek Mobile Mini Backplane Review

Benching the Mobile Mini Backplane

Here is the Test platform:

Test Platform: Custom Mini-ITX Box
Component	Brand/Model	Live Pricing
Processor and Motherboard	Intel Desktop Board D945GCLF	Click Here
Memory	1GB Generic Ultra Low Profile DDR2-533	Click Here
Hard Drive	Mtron 7000Pro 16GB SSD	Click Here
Operating System	Windows XP Pro 32-Bit	Click Here

This a Custom Mini-ITX build containing the above components. All benchmarks were run with a full install of Windows XP updated to Service Pack 3.

As a baseline, we benchmarked the Mobile Mini Backplane against an 8GB Corsair Flash Voyager in ATTO Benchmark, CrystalMark, HDTach, and HDTune. We set up the Mobile Mini Backplane in a Raid 1 Configuration with two 160GB 7200RPM 2.5″ Hard drives.

In the first benchmark, we used ATTO to benchmark both Devices. Above we have the Corsair Flash Voyager maxing out at a write speed of 5.3MB/s and a read speed of 19.8MB/s. Below, we have the same benchmark running on the Mobile Mini Backplane with the Backplane maxing out at write speeds of 20MB/s and read speeds of 24.4MB/s.

In this bench, advantage goes to the Sunny Mobile Mini Backplane, where it achieved nearly four times the write speeds of the Corsair Flash Voyager.

Above we have the CrystalDisk benchmark for the Corsair Flash Voyager, where we achieved a max write speed of 2.3MB/s and a max read speed of 21.80MB/s. These benches are in line with what we achieved in the ATTO test. Below, we have the same benchmark for the Mobile Mini Backplane with a max write speed of 25.7MB/s and a read speed of 19.5MB/s. We achieved a higher read speed here than we did in the ATTO benchmark, but these readings are consistent with our previous benchmark results.

Again, we have here the advantage going to the Mobile Mini Backplane with both its read and write speeds clearly outclassing the lowly Corsair Flash Voyager

Above we have an HDTach run for the Corsair Flash Voyager. Here you can see that the Corsair Flash Voyager achieves its highest read speed of the benchmarks so far at 25.9MB/s. The drive also comes in with a very low access time and CPU utilization rate that we have come to expect from Flash Drives. Below we have the same benchmark run on the Mobile Mini Backplane, in which it also sports its highest reading of the benches with a read speed of 26.7MB/s. Unfortunately not being Flash Based, the Mobile Mini Backplane cannot compete with the CPU utilization or access times of the flash drive.

Here it is a split decision, the Mobile Mini Backplane wins in the speed department, but the Corsair Flash Voyager wins in both CPU utilization and access times.

Our final benchmark is HDTune Pro 3.10, and above is our test done with the Corsair Flash Voyager, where we achieved a max read speed of 19.2MB/s. Oddly enough we had a reading of 12.4% CPU utilization, which was significantly higher than the reading obtained in HDTach. This reading was confirmed over ten runs with HDTune. Below, we have the same benchmark with the Mobile Mini Back Plane, were we achieved a max read speed of 24.8MB/s and similar access time and CPU usage readings to that of HDTune.

Once again, the speed crown goes to the Mobile Mini Backplane. It’s clear that a simple Flash drive cannot compete with a dedicated SilconImage Raid Controller. Finally, below, I took some real word drive readings of read and write speeds with HDTune Disk Monitor to see what speeds were achieved when reading from files, and transferring files between the OS disk, a Mtron 7000 16GB SSD, and the Mobile Mini Back Plane, and vice versa. As you can see we achieved a max read speed of 19.5MB/s and a max write speed of 16.5MB/s.

With all the fun done, lets finish this up and move on to the conclusion.